Celestia Forums

I have a 16k texture of mars and I want to convert it in dds (jpg originaly -takes 25 minutes to load). I've converted it into .tga and used Nvdxt-Conver-561 (dds converter); after 10 minutes the cmd window closes and no file results. What went wrong? Is the size too big? (I have converted a 90megs tga and it works). (the jpg is 7.42MB & the tga is 384MB). My sys is: AthlonXP2000+, 512ddr, GfFX5200 128M, RAID (2hhd*30GB) -> WinXP +SP1

MindToAsk wrote:

I have converted a 90megs tga and it works). (the jpg is 7.42MB & the tga is 384MB). My sys is: AthlonXP2000+, 512ddr, GfFX5200 128M, RAID (2hhd*30GB) -> WinXP +SP1

Is that file size a typo?
I have an Athlon 2500+, GF FX5200 256MB, 1GB 333Mhz DDR Ram, 7200rpm HD. That's a big file, even for my system!

As far as I know the Nvidia DDS dos converter
has big trouble with textures larger than 8192 x 4096

unless you have some killer system specs

So just stick with 8k textures for now
and YES it is slow at that size.

Good luck

Check to make sure you have a large enough page/swap file. It should be 3-4x the size of your main memory. For best performance, it should be a fixed size and not dynamically allocated: set min size and max size to be the same value. Nvdxt grows to be about 2-3x the size of the texture that you're converting, although the resulting DDS file is smaller.

Be sure to specify dxt1 format to minimize the size of the output file. dxt3 should be used only if you're including an alpha channel for specular reflections or transparency (for nebulas).

The immense size of high resolution surface texture files is one reason that virtual textures are being used these days. Install Celestia v1.3.1pre11 if you haven't already. Also, please read the postings about virtual textures. There are instructions for creating scripts to slice and dice the large image files before you translate them into DDS format.

Does this help?

Selden I have 512mb of main ram, and a 2gig swap file
and it still hangs if i try to convert a 16k texture

I did read on another page about this same problem
So I thinks its a limit with the converter, or more like a bug.

Paul,

Which version of nvdxt are you using?
It looks like v5.74 has some size-related bugfixes, although it doesn't actually say what sizes work. (My system is too slow and small to try to create textures larger than 4Kx2K.)

See http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html

Ah A new one thanks Selden
I currently have v5.61

And thanks for the link, getting it now

I've tried even with a 4G swap ... no luck. I'm downloading the Photoshop plugin and maybe luck will shine ! else I'll have to stick with the 8k texture. Thanks selden. (I'm using pre11)

mindtoask,
Have you tried my image converter program that i recently released on my new website. It should be able to do it. just stick to dxt1. it's as easy to use as the nvidia tool and even comes with example bat files.

hi for me the photoshop plugin hangs on 8k png to dds ,
but MS dxt 9 sdk works fine for 8k . i havent tried a 16k yet

DBrady I've downloaded your image converter, but it seems to be a problem with it (or a conflict with winxp prof.+SP1). I can't run the exe directly from win explorer -> I get a message that the program has encountered a problem and needs to close (before even opening a cmd window). I've tried to run it from dos prompt -> same thing, only this time the message appears after several minutes it has started the conversion. Does the program converts directly from .jpg files? or I have to convert first in .tga?
John I've downloaded your 4k earth clouds texture. Nice work! thanks[/b]

MindToAsk,

I have never published any cloud textures: my interests are somewhat further afield. I suspect you meant to thank someone else. Maybe Don Edwards?

sorry selden, I ment John's texture. (it was kind of late here 1 am)

Mindtoask
Could you post the command line you are using to run the program.
I assume you're not just double clicking the exe file directly ; )

DBrady
After a restart it worked just fine, though only in dos prompt. If I try to run the exe I get this message: "ImageConverter.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." What operating system do you use (I have winxp prof.)? Or maybe it is beacuse of windows shell, I'm using WindowBlinds4... Anyway, great work you've done with this converter! Keep up the good work![/b]